Lions wear down the Warriors in 4

It is no match for experience and height, as the No. 11 Hawaii men's volleyball team found out last night against No. 4 Penn State.

Led by 6-foot-10 junior Matt Anderson's 21 kills and 15 from 6-5 opposite Ryan Sweitzer, the Nittany Lions wore down the Warriors 21-30, 30-24, 30-20, 30-18 in front of 1,277 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

It was the second consecutive year that Penn State (1-0) topped Hawaii (0-1) in the Outrigger Hotels Invitational. In last night's opener, No. 3 UCLA turned back unranked Ball State 30-23, 30-27, 26-30, 30-22.

The Bruins take on the Nittany Lions in today's 4 p.m. match, followed by the Warriors against the Cardinals. For Hawaii to have a chance against Ball State, the Warriors will have to find consistency and win the serve-serve receive battle that led to winning Game 1 last night.

"When we can win those battles, we have a pretty nice offense," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "But when we backed off on our serves tonight, we let (Penn State) get into system. They really upgraded their game after Game 1.

"For us, we're still getting acclimated to each other. We need a little seasoning."

It was a bit of a disappointment for opposite Jake Schkud, Hawaii's lone senior. He had eight kills through Game 2 but just two the rest of the night.

"They're a very big team and well coached," Schkud said. "When our passing broke down, the wheels began falling off and we had some flat tires out there.

"We can only go up from here."

Junior hitter Jim Clar led the Warriors with 15 kills. Schkud and Matt Rawson were in on five blocks.

Hawaii made an impressive comeback in Game 1 after being down 4-1 in the first 2 minutes, forcing Wilton to burn a timeout. Behind the serving of Clar, Hawaii took its first lead at 15-14 and never lost it.

Schkud and Rawson combined for three straight blocks as the Warriors used a 5-1 run to pull away for a 25-17 margin. Schkud's ace gave Hawaii game point at 29-19 and, after two kills by PSU's Matt Anderson, the game ended on Sweitzer's service error.

The Nittany Lions turned a 6 to 3.5 deficit in blocks into a 9.5 to 8.5 advantage in Game 2, led by 6-foot senior setter Luke Murray's two solo stuffs. Sweitzer got out of negative hitting numbers in a big way, putting down kills and Anderson added four as Penn State pulled away to even the match.

The momentum remained with the Nittany Lions coming out of the break. Even a revamped Warrior lineup, with Clar at left-side hitter and libero Ric Cervantes the only starters still in, did little to slow down Penn State's 6-7 middle Max Lipsitz (5 kills) and Anderson (5 kills) in Game 3.

The Warriors made one last stand in Game 4, rallying from as far back as 19-14 to 20-17. The Lions roared back, scoring nine straight en route to the victory.

"I thought for our first time out, to come out and pass as well as we did, was really good," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. "It's the best we've ever passed the ball here. If our passing holds up, I think we can be a pretty good team."

Lipsitz added 14 kills with no errors on 18 swings and also had eight blocks.

UCLA 3, Ball State 1

Sophomore hitter Garrett Muagututia had a monster game, putting down 21 kills, but it was senior libero Tony Ker who was even more impressive with 18 of the Bruins' 34 digs in the 30-23, 30-27, 26-30, 30-22 victory.

The Cardinals, getting 17 kills from freshman hitter Marcus Imwalle and 12 from freshman hitter Meyer Lee, were without two of their leading hitters. Senior Patrick Durbin and junior Todd Chamberlain remained on the mainland for violating team rules.

Ball State coach Joel Walton said the goal of the tournament was to play better every match. The Cardinals improved a bit in each game last night, but could not capitalize on the Bruins' one weakness: serving (26 errors, 10 in Game 2).

"We are young and we want to improve each night out, which isn't easy when you're playing three straight nights against three great teams," Walton said. "There are no easy matches here."

The Cardinals went with sophomore setter Ethan Pheister last night, but sophomore setter Jeff Schmitz could get the start tonight against the Warriors.